Senior PHP Developer

ARK Schools is a fast growing children's charity seeking to establish an outstanding network of inner city academies. With 27 academies currently open and several more under development, we are looking for a strong and highly skilled Senior PHP Developer to support the Systems and Data team in the development of reporting and management systems.

Key responsibilities
* To support the Head of Systems in the development of complex systems and applications in accordance with specific business needs, relevant SLAs and best practice and industry standard methodologies.
* To capture user requirements for specific changes and improvements to core business applications.
* To provide early life support for all in house development projects.
* To produce robust and effective documentation is in place for all existing and new systems and applications underpinning the transition from 'development' to 'early life support' to 'business as usual'.
* To manage and mentor the Systems Developer.

Other
* To undertake any other responsibilities commensurate with the post as directed by the Head of Systems.

PERSON SPECIFICATION

Qualifications
* Right to work in the UK.

Skills and Experience
Essential
* Experience of developing complex systems and tools in PHP to meet specific business requirements.
* Experience of object oriented programming.
* Experience with MVC frameworks, in particular, Symfony 2.
* Knowledge of design patterns and best coding practices.
* Experience with queries and analysis on large data sets.
* Experience of the full software development lifecycle: from requirements gathering and functional specification authoring, to development, testing and delivery.
* Web technologies including PHP, HTML, CSS and XML.
* Experience with source control: SVN or Git.
* System design and usability.

Desirable
* BDD / TDD
* LAMP
* MySQL
* Proficiency with JavaScript.
* Experience with agile methodologies
* Interest in data visualisation.
* Big data experience.
* Education industry experience, ideally experience with School Management Information Systems.

Personal Characteristics
* Self- motivated, and resilient with a "can-do" attitude and the ability to work calmly and pragmatically under pressure.
* Takes personal responsibility for their own actions and for organisational outcomes.
* Able to communicate on a technical level with other IT professionals, and in non-technical terms to academic colleagues.
* Has high expectations of themselves and the quality of their work.

Other
* This post is subject to an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service check
* The post holder must be committed to safeguarding the welfare of children.
* The post holder may be required to work outside normal business hours, on occasion, with due notice.
* The post holder will be required to adhere to the ARK IT annual leave policy.

To apply for this role please click the APPLY button.